The Dutch parliament is meeting on Wednesday to decide how the country should be run, after the shock resignation on Tuesday of the entire government.

Prime Minister Wim Kok and his cabinet quit less than a week after an official report on the Srebrenica massacre held the Dutch Government partly responsible for failing to protect the victims.

The international community is anonymous and cannot take responsibility... I can and I do.

Wim Kok

A general election which had already been scheduled for 15 May is expected to go ahead as planned, and the cabinet is expected to run the country in a caretaker capacity until then.

Mr Kok said he was standing down to take responsibility for what had happened.

The international community "is anonymous and
cannot take responsibility", he said. "I can and I do."

The report published last week accused ministers of giving the task of protecting Srebrenica to lightly-armed and ill-trained Dutch peacekeepers, with no clear mandate.

Names of victims: Up to 8,000 men and boys were killed

It also criticised senior military figures and the United Nations itself.

Up to 8,000 men and boys were killed when Serb forces overran what was supposed to be a United Nations safe area.

Wednesday's parliamentary session is expected to approve a caretaker government made up of the same centre-left parties.

But it will mean a certain level of paralysis until the elections, with a number of issues left hanging.

Tough campaign

Mr Kok had already decided not to run for prime minister again.

The effect of the mass resignation on Dutch voters remains to be seen.

The left-wing coalition, which had been running the country since 1994, had already slipped in popularity.

The coalition parties include Mr Kok's PvdA Labour party, the free
market liberals of the VVD and reformist D66 parties.

Commentators are predicting a tough election campaign which will now begin early.

"Competition between the major (coalition) parties will
become stronger now that they are free to fight each other in
the run-up to the elections," said Alis Koekkoek, professor of
constitutional law at Tilburg University.

Some opposition politicians have also questioned whether friction between the parties might have been the real reason for the mass resignation.

And far right newcomer Pim Fortuyn criticised Mr Kok for resigning, saying he was "walking away".